The availability of corporate finance is of critical importance to local and regional development. Since equity finance is the only method of capital acquisition that is not collateralized, the firms that compete most effectively for it are thought to be stronger competitors in the current marketplace. It was found that equity investment in North Carolina is highly concentrated both spatially and sectorally.

The occurrence of cerebrovascular disease (stroke) and the resulting loss of life in the U.S. are astronomical. Mortality rates from strokes have plummeted over the last fifty and current patterns of stroke mortality do support the notion that the stroke belt in the southeast is becoming more fragmented; however, additional geographical information and multidisciplinary research are warranted to better understand the distribution of deaths.

The emerging national controversy over the socio-economic and environmental impacts of corporate pork production on rural communities raises claims environmental injustice. The US swine industry has undergone a dramatic restructuring, expansion, and vertical integration of its pork production systems, locating in peripheral, rural locations like North Carolina. This article examines the relationships between key environmental injustice variables and the spatial concentration of swine waste in the Black Belt region of the state in order to assess the claims of environmental inequity central to this national issue.

In recent years, like many small North Carolina communities, Hookerton (on the southern bank of Contentnea Creek in Greene County) has seen a precipitous decline in its economic and population base. Thus, its wastewater treatment system is in disrepair. But Hookerton has latched on to the duckweed wastewater treatment system that uses duckweed lagoons as bioreacters to generate clean water.